About the Author

David J. Climenhaga is an award-winning journalist, author, post-secondary teacher, poet and trade union communicator who has worked in senior writing and editing positions at the Toronto Globe and Mail and Calgary Herald. He holds a Masters Degree in Journalism from the Carleton University School of Journalism in Ottawa. His 1995 book, A Poke in the Public Eye, explores the relationships among Canadian journalists, public relations people and politicians. The opinions expressed in his blog and other journalistic and literary writing represent his own views and not those of any employer, organization, society, institution or organized religion with which he may be affiliated.

17 Comments to: About the Author

Chris

April 14th, 2018

Wow, very snazzy look! Will take a bit of getting used to I reckon.

One thing I miss — with the old format, the number of comments posted to any item was easy to see and allowed the reader to quickly decide whether or not to click on a post again to read the new comments. If the comment count can again be displayed I would be a happier reader.

David Climenhaga

April 15th, 2018

Chris: I will mention this to my web designer. If I have found anything with WordPress, it’s that whenever you switch themes, you lose things you liked and get things you’re not crazy about and somehow didn’t expect when you looked at the mockups. They can’t always be fixed without just adopting a new look holus-bolus. On the whole, I think this is a big improvement visually. The newspapery appearance appeals to me, given my history. I will try to tweak it to keep readers happy. That said, the main reasons driving the need for change were technical in the back end of the site. The old theme was getting long in the tooth and some bits had stopped working properly. It should also be possible to build in the capability for more, and more sophisticated, advertisements with this theme. I’m not crazy about running ads, but there are expenses associated with running a blog like this, but I prefer that to constantly bombarding my readers with pleas for money like certain right-wing vloggers. DJC

Sub-Boreal

April 16th, 2018

I want to echo commenter Chris that I too checked back regularly to look at the number of comments – much more convenient when I can see this for all recent stories at a glance. I hope that your designer is able to fix this.

Above all, thanks for doing this site. As someone who spent a total of 4 years in AB back in the ’70s and ’80s, I really appreciate your grounded, sensible perspective on a place which has had a certain grim fascination for me ever since. I have fond memories of meeting Grant Notley when I belonged to the NDP club at U of A in the late ’70s, so the bizarre petro-transformation of his daughter has been quite a sad spectacle to watch.

David Climenhaga

April 16th, 2018

I am happy to report that my web designer expects to be able to fix this. The number of comments will appear next to the Facebook and Twitter logos at the column’s top right, if all goes according to plan. DJC

James Anderson

April 17th, 2018

Also on the right hand side of my screen there’s a persistent and intrusive menu of stuff concerning support and a selection of categories of content. Please delete that. Put your support beg on each page load but don’t make it persistent or corrosive. Currently? It’s both!

Jerrymacgp

April 18th, 2018

So, far, I’m liking the new look … looks very professional, like an actual news site might look. I also like the larger typeface… many of us mortality-deferred need larger type lol. Too bad the comments are still small print …

David Climenhaga

Valerie Losell

June 9th, 2018

I wrote a letter of support to the President of U. of A. encouraging him to hold his nerve against the barbarians when this “outrage” at Suziki’s honorary degree broke. I included a cheque for $10 as a nominal donation to the president’s fund, saying I hoped thousands of other reasonable Canadians would send a little to replace the “outraged” oil patch lawyers withdrawal of support to the university.
I was then quite surprised to receive a very eloquent letter in response thanking me for my support and saying friendship in troubled times meant a lot (I live in Barrie Ontario). I was most impressed by the letter, and a little disturbed that he would have time to write to little old me–did it mean he had almost no other encouragement, or was just a very civilized person?? Hoping it was the latter,
Valerie Losell

James Kohut

The Provincial Conservatives in Alberta and Federally across Canada over the decades created an economic structural problem that has lead to the current oil price problems for Alberta.

Forty years of past bad American influenced Conservative rule in Alberta has lead to Alberta oil price problems. The Americanized Conservatives put too many of Alberta’s pipeline eggs into the American basket. In combination with the Federal Conservatives, they also crushed the National Energy Program that would have built pipelines to every market corner in Canada along with shifting the oil industry from American control to Canadian control. The National Energy Program would have resulted in Canadian owned pipelines being built from east to west which would have allowed for oil sales to off shore markets as well. One of the goals of the National Energy Program was to eliminate foreign oil from entering Canada, hence the reason why the pipelines would have been built.

Until recent years, there was a social licence to build pipelines across the country. This was primarily due to a result of a lack of environmental awareness among the majority of Canadians. As environmental awareness of damage by the foreign controlled oil industry in Canada increased, the social licence to build pipelines has evaporated like diluent spilled into river water.

When foreign corporate take-over and control of the resource industries occurs, like what has occurred in Canada, the political control is also taken over by the foreign corporations. If the foreign corporations don’t like government policies, like a National Energy Program, they lay off thousands of people and create political havoc for the government in power. During the National Energy Program, the Americans laid off 50,000 workers in Calgary and sent the drilling rigs south to the USA as a punishment tool and to harm our economy to create political change. It worked. The Americanized Federal Conservatives came into power in 1984 and eliminated the National Energy Program and shelved all the plans to build pipelines from coast to coast which would have served Canadians rather than foreign corporations. As a result of the bad Conservative actions, here we are today with $10 to $15 per barrel Alberta oil when the world market price is well into the $50 to $70 USD range worldwide.

What does Jason Kenney have to do with the price of oil? He was one of those Americanized Conservatives that fought against the National Energy Program and Petro Canada being owned by the Canadian Government. Thanks to people like him, the foreign controlled American oil companies are getting extremely wealthy and Canadians are suffering economic losses of $80 million dollars per day. Furthermore the government debt in Alberta and Canada is increasing massively along with the debt of people who are unemployed or under employed due to oil industry lay-offs.

If real democracy existed, where people make decisions rather than American influenced politicians, it is likely Albertans would add more value to their oil rather than shipping too much of the raw resource to the Americans for pennies on the dollar. The best way for Albertan’s to grow their economy is to take control over government decisions through a process where the people are given the freedom of choice and right to vote on bills before the “House.” Then the people would effectively determine how their resources would be efficiently utilized and sold for maximum profit.

gerald fisher

December 21st, 2018

Just read your rant on the truck convoy and you came across as trite and petty. Then again , I would bet you are a legend in your own mind. Who paid for the gas, ridiculous and really reaching for straws which pretty well tells you that your comments were useless and only served to make you feel excited about what you failed to say.

Wyatt

December 26th, 2018

You’re article about the alberta convoy was sickening. Did justin Trudeau pay you to write that garbage? The cost was covered by every individual or company that truck belonged to. Perfectly legal to protest too. Why don’t you move to Quebec you complete goof

Mike Tessier

I read your Alberta top ten and one point in particular is bothersome as you don’t come close to reporting the truth.

9. Craft beer. The UCP Opposition doesn’t like NDP policies that created a craft beer boom in Alberta, but you’ll notice they’re drinking the stuff, not the watery corporate fizz from Saskatchewan they’re fighting for.

This is wrong, in fact the UCP has not reached out to us at all. It is my company Artisan Ales that has taken the AB government to trade tribunal twice and won. In fact our two victories have in some cases have lowered the price of craft beer $3.00 or more a six pack.

A little company run on love of beer has taken down a government.

Sad that your partisan politics have distorted this story as you are not even close to the truth here.

There is portion of the trade tribunal process coming up where the AB government is going to have to pay fines. Then there is the Steam Whistle/Great Western appeal this spring which they are going to lose, costing Albertans millions. Then there is the class action suit which they are going to lose again.

If you reported the facts you would have reported AB admitted guilt that their 1st measure was wrong, then proceeded to lose 2 trade tribunals and 1 court case.

This has very little to do with Saskatchewan beer, the UCP and all to do with breaking trade agreements.

John

David Climenhaga

January 6th, 2019

John: My goal with this blog is to write entertaining stories and to write stories that are not told elsewhere, both from a progressive perspective. Brian Topp’s recent draft Policy Magazine story published on social media and ignored by mainstream media was an example that I think was important, even though I share many of Andy Marshall’s concerns about the state of the NDP right now. Bitterness from the Wildrose rump in the UCP may eventually create problems for Jason Kenney, but I believe most Alberta conservatives will stick with him regardless of almost anything in the immediate future, which spells a difficult 2019 for the NDP. So while there is the opportunity in this story to mock Mr. Kenney for his obvious hypocrisy, I am not persuaded the resignation of 17 constituency association officials in Calgary-Falconridge is that significant in the great scheme of things. Anyway, there’s only so much time. I basically write this blog myself, and I can’t cover every story out there. Neither can Postmedia, apparently, with considerably more reporters and columnists. We are ill served by our media, especially Postmedia, but I can’t make up for it all by myself! DJC